« shape and idea | Main | a pure spirit with a virgin ear »

September 5, 2007

music and poetry

Music, which concerns itself only with the undefined movement of the inward spiritual nature, and deals with the musical sounds as, so to speak, feeling without thought, needs little or no spiritual content to be present in consciousness. It is for this reason that musical talent generally announces itself in very early youth, while the head is still empty and the heart has been but little moved, and is capable of attaining to a very considerable height in early years, before mind and life have experience if themselves.

The reverse is the case with poetry. In poetry all depends on the representation – which must be full of matter and thought – of man, of his profounder interests, and of the powers that move him; and therefore mind and heart themselves must be richly and profoundly educated by life, experience, and reflection, before genius can bring to pass anything mature, substantial, and self-complete.


Hegel - Lectures on Aesthetics

Posted by amin at September 5, 2007 12:14 AM